


Delivery Pt. 2

by roseprincess2018



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Cute family fluff Some angst, PTSD trigger warnning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-09 16:14:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19479484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseprincess2018/pseuds/roseprincess2018
Summary: Summary: Once again our friendly delivery man comes to the Walter Manor. This time it is in the fall of 1973. The war is over and with a new assistant helping, the Delivery man who has been working for the Walters for nearly two decades makes a heartbreaking discovery about the robotic members of the Walter’s family.





	Delivery Pt. 2

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: A bit more on this story. Warning folks this one is sad and deals with some complicated issues ( ptsd) hope you like!

Part 2: 1973 fall

I’ve been the Walter’s delivery man for almost two decades now and I am, I have to sadly admit, starting to get old. So it was in the fall of that year that I hired myself an assistant.  
Someone younger and stronger than oldman me.  
He turned out to be a very nice boy. Young man in his twenties, home from the war, looking to find his own sense of peace in the world again after seeing all of that. He seemed like a  
nice enough young man, but I could tell the burn scars on the side of his face made it hard for him to get a normal job. So when I told him he was basically hired he smiled at me with genuine happiness. Later on I asked him about the burns.  
“Oh these?” He laughed, “Its ok.. Yah I got scared but I got out with my life and I will be forever grateful to the man in the Silver mask that saved me.”  
I raised one eyebrow at him, “Silver mask?”  
“Yah,” He nodded, “I don’t know his name. Only that he was special forces and one of the biggest, scariest people I ever met. But that he was also one of the kindest.”  
I had to stop and listen to that because it sounded suspiciously like The Spine. Big, intimidating as hell, wouldn’t hurt a fly.  
“So what happened son? If you don’t mind my asking.”  
The young ex soldier smiled at me, “ not at all sir, specially if you are going to be giving me a job.” He paused and looked far off for a second and then continued.  
“ It was what they called Operation Hump, on the eight of november 1965. The whole thing went south, and I do mean south Sir. My whole platoon woulda been killed, and as you can see I got half of my face blown off. I was sure I was going to die, that I had no hope and no future. No one was gonna pull me out of that burning chopper. Least that's what I thought.”  
I nodded and continued to listen to him,” Go on son.”  
“That's when it happened,” He smiled at this a bit, “Someone TORE the DOOR off the side of the chopper and pulled me out. I couldn't see much of anything until we were away from the mess and that's when I got a good look at him. He couldn’t have been much older than I am now. But he was … well.. He was silver sir. Silver with glowing green eyes.”  
I blinked at him, now knowing exactly whom he was talking about. Only one man fit that description.  
“ So he pulled me out of that mess and got me and most of my platoon back to the base. There were two other boys there wearing masks similar to his. They were working with the medics to try and help us. I thought I was gonna die. I WANTED to die it hurt so much. So he sat there and talked to me, just about home, and the states. “ He smiled again, “And his two lil girls. God he loved those lil girls from the way he talked.”  
“Seems like a good man,” I told him back, not wanting to let the cat outta the bag just yet.  
“Yes sir,” The young man now heaved a sigh, “I never saw him or the other two boys with him again after that night. They told us that they had been captured but we wouldn’t be going on a rescue mission. That others were more important. I wanted to go back when I was healed but….”  
“No young man I don’t think the military would have let you, but it's proving to me that your heart’s in the right place Son. Also proving to me that I have completely and 100% hired the right man for this job.”  
The young ex soldier smiled at me again, “Thank you sir, when do I start?”  
“To night if you want to young man,” I told him, “I have a delivery to make and I could powerful use some help on it.”  
So an hour later we had picked up everything we needed from my wear house and had headed out to the Walter manor. I hadn’t really been doing many deliveries there lately. The reason I had been told, was that in the last few years some of the Residents had been needed in the conflict over seas and that they were no longer here to need the various supplies.  
Today however a call had come into me with a request for a full delivery of all the traditional items. So I had looked into some of those answers from my want adds and finally gotten some help. Now we were pulling up into the drive and the message had been left to please come to the back of the manor as usual to drop of the requested items and pick up the pay for them. As I pulled the truck around I noticed the change in the house. It had been cold and dark, with lights only in a few windows in the last few years. Now the whole place was lit up and I could almost feel that the missing family had finally been returned home.  
While we were at the back door waiting for which ever one of the Walters were going to be paying us this time, I heard something. The place has a very large garden as part of it, most of it lit by hanging lanterns, giving it a warm inviting glow. What I heard that night coming from the garden was a quiet conversation between a family that was finally reunited after the long war that had almost certainly torn all of them apart. In, I would find out, more ways than one.  
The first voice I heard was from the young girl I had met on the back steps all those years ago.  
“Father,” She paused, “Look you CAN’T think your responsible for this…. please? “  
There was a long pause and then a deep baritone that I recognize answered.  
“If it wasn't for us she wouldn’t be in this condition Sprocket, “ He sighed, “How am I not going to hold myself responsible when what happened put one of the most precious people in the world to me in a coma?”  
“Because,” The girl answered him, “ It was Pearl’s choice. She made the right one. If she hadn’t done what she did, they would have never found you or the others. What she saw… can only be blamed on the people that did it to you and your family.. NOT you.. The victim.”  
I heard him make and angry noise and move away, “She SHOULDN’T have been there. She’s not built for combat, or violence! She… “  
If I had ever in my life heard a man’s heart breaking it was right then when I heard the man I knew had to be The Spine trying to understand what had happened. I couldn’t take this. I was not going to let people I respected be in this kind of condition. So I moved forward through the garden to go see if I could find them and talk to them.  
Find them I did, near the center of the place. The Spine now seated on one of the stone benches in the center, across from the two girls that were on the other one. His older daughter Sprocket sat there with her lil sister’s head in her lap. The other young girl Pearl looked completely lifeless, and lay there simply being held by her older sister. Something BAD had happened to this family in the interim since I had last seen them, because to say that the little one Pearl looked bad was one thing. Her father looked like death warmed over.  
If it was possible for a robot to look like he’d been to hell and back this is how The Spine looked in that second. He wasn’t wearing his normal black outfit and Hat, right then simply wearing what might have been a black robe or kimono of some type. I could see black scorches on his face, arms, and hands that looked like fresh weld marks, ones that hadn’t been sanded and polished to his normal shine. The normal bright emerald of his eyes had faded to a pale green and the massive silver robot was actually shaking where he sat. That made me wonder if he should even be out there in the first place or should be back wherever he had come from in the house.  
The older girl took a deep breath and started again, “You all will never be the same and I understand that. But you have to find a way ….. Maybe you should sing again.”  
He raised his head and gave her a slightly bewildered look, “What?”  
“Maybe you should start singing again, “ She repeated, “After your completely repaired … It…” She stopped and bit her lip, “If she hears you sing Father. It might help her wake up.”  
“I can’t” The Spine looked off, “I …”  
“Pearl will at least know your there,” Sprocket said softly, “Even if she’s far off some place maybe that will help.That’s what she is afraid of, that your gone. ”  
I watched as he turned his head away again. Then I saw the look on lil Sprocket’s face and realized she was about to bust out the big guns on the emotional front. Her black lips set into a line and she shifted her lil’ sister on her lap a bit.  
“What would Pearl’s mother have told you?” She asked The Spine, “What would she have said about that ? “  
The silver titian raised his head and looked his older daughter square in the eyes. For just a second I thought he wasn’t going to be able to reply to her. That he had no response to give her on that one. Then he gently reached over and ran his hand through the black hair of his younger daughter. The one he once told me that looked like the woman he had loved. He looked back up at Sprocket and replied, “She said, ‘Don’t ever let your music stop.’”  
“She was a wise woman, An’ not my bio mom, but at least had words worth heading Father.” She smiled at him, “Maybe you should?”  
Now The Spine actually smiled at the lil daughter he loved so much, “That is fighting dirty young lady.”  
“Whatever works,” She grinned wider, “Don’t worry about Pearl, she’s strong. She’s based off your design and you literally went to hell and back Father. They pulled you apart at the literal seems, and you still lived. She will to, she just needs time.”  
Right then I heard the young man I had just hired walk up behind me and quietly gasp.  
“HOLY GOD,” He said, “That.. ..That’s HIM!”  
Well now that the loudmouth had gotten their attention, both of the awake bots looks up and noticed us standing in the shadows.  
“Hi,” Sprocket smiled, “Sorry we didn't’ see you.”  
“Sorry kiddo,” I told them, “I heard you and yer Pappa talking and didn’t want to get in the way.”  
Spine tried to stand up but I motioned for him to stay seated, “I’m sorry to see the war took such a hard toll on you Son. But I am glad that you made it back home to your babies.”  
He smiled faintly, “I almost didn’t. Pearl found us.”  
The young man behind me now walked out and stared, “Sir…?”  
The Spine blinked and smiled again, “Sgt Kincaid.” He smiled at the young man, “I am so glad to see that you made it home.”  
Sprocket grinned, “is he a friend Father?”  
“He saved my life,” Kincaid told her, “I owe your daddy everything lil one. He saved SOO Many lives.”  
He walked over and knelt down so he could look closer at her, “He told me about his lil daughters, how he wanted to go home to them,” Kincaid Looked at Over at him, “I thank God you  
made it home Sir. You deserve to be with your family, Your a hero.”  
If it were possible for a robot to blush, right then I know The Spine would have been.  
I coughed a bit, “This young man is gonna be my assistant from now on, I’m getting a lil old so I need some help.”  
The Spine actually had the audacity to grin over that one, “Come back and complain on the old front when your almost 80.”  
I grinned back over that one “Hardy har har big guy. Hey.. you take care of yourself and these lil ladies ok.. ? We gotta truck this stuff into the house.”  
“Thank you again,” He nodded.  
“And Spine?”  
He looked up at me.  
“Kid’s right ya know, if you sing to that baby girl of yours she’ll come back to you. I know it.”  
He got a thoughtful look on his face and I turned and headed back to the house with Kincaid giving The Spine one more thank you for his life.  
About an hour later when we were leaving I heard something in the garden and just had to take one more look. What I saw warmed my old heart to its very bottom. I saw The Spine sitting there with his both of his daughters again. This time one was on either side of him as he sang softly for the two of them. Sprocket had a contented look on her pretty face and Pearl looked the same. Her lovely pink eyes open and looking at her family with such a look of relief and happiness it left me feeling warm for days afterward .


End file.
